When Finest Meridor was 11 years old, he was reserved and felt like he had nothing to do during his free time. Now 18, Meridor is a member of the drama club and vice president of the engineering club at North Miami High School, and handles music production of a band that performs at ArtWalk

When Jocelyn Morffi, a first-grade teacher at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic School in Miami, was talking to her students two years ago about recent tragedies in the world, she was inspired to show them that there is hope in the community. Then, a year later, she brainstormed with her new group of students about

When Karina Medina took swimming lessons for the first time at age 8, she did not expect to become a lifeguard. Now at 17, her role is to protect others from a frequent occurrence in South Florida: drowning. According to the Miami-Dade Drowning Prevention Coalition, drowning is the county’s leading cause of death for children

When Ashley Marie Hierrezuelo, 12, left her dance practice three months ago, she didn’t feel well and asked to go to the hospital. Her parents figured it was another asthma attack that could be easily dealt with. But upon their arrival at the hospital, Ashley was given multiple treatments that didn’t help and resulted in

As children walked through the lobby of Miami Children’s Hospital last month, 2-year-old Daniella Collazo greeted them with a smile and a wave. “It’s OK. You’ll be OK,” she said to the passing children. About a year earlier, Daniella had been diagnosed with neuroblastoma stage III cancer, a type of cancer that develops in the

When Raul Morin was 15, he sat in front of the class jock in school, “the wrestler, football player, big, beefy guy,” who bullied him for being gay. “I was the class nerd, the closeted white elephant no one could talk about,” said Morin, now 33. The bully would write the word “fag” on the